Chest
Original ResearchAsthmaDedicated Severe Asthma Services Improve Health-care Use and Quality of Life
Section snippets
Results
Baseline demographics are shown in Table 1. TABLE 2, TABLE 3, TABLE 4 compare baseline and follow-up visits in terms of lung function, health-care use, corticosteroid use, and QoL.
The study used a minimum follow-up period of 100 days, with a range of 100 to 833 days and a median value of 286 days. Table 5 divides the cohort into tertiles (1 = shortest and 3 = longest follow-up period) according to the time between baseline and follow-up. Values are presented as No. (%) or median (interquartile
Discussion
The usefulness of a systematic assessment for severe asthma was first evaluated in 1993. A study of 42 patients with difficult-to-control asthma (defined as requiring > 10 mg of prednisolone every other day for ≥ 3 consecutive mo/y) found that following a series of investigations, 31 were deemed no longer difficult to control.7 In addition, it identified two or more contributing factors to the asthma in 80% of subjects. Subsequent studies looking at a systematic assessment have noted similar
Acknowledgments
Author contributions: A. N. M.-G. had full access to all the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis, including and especially any adverse effects. D. G., L. G. H., C. E. Brightling, R. N., A. H. M., R. C., C. E. Bucknall, and A. N. M.-G. contributed to the study planning and conduct; D. G. contributed to the presentation of plans and data to the group; D. G. and A. N. M.-G. contributed to the data abstraction and
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FUNDING/SUPPORT: The authors have reported to that no funding was received for this study.
originally published Online First March 19, 2015.